Dear MNHQ - A good suggestion regarding putting the laugh react emoji back.

[CandyCayne]

Please can you look at the suggestions on this thread regarding putting the laugh reaction back?

Yes, I'm well aware that it was removed because some awful people were abusing it.

But is it possible to bring it back as something that members can toggle on/off in their settings, if they do/don't want people to laugh react to their posts?

And if the tech team are feeling particularly generous, could they separate them out so we could toggle them on/off individually?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5454841-to-think-we-should-have-the-option-to-have-the-laughing-emoji-on-our-threads?reply=148967218

I’ve been thinking about this since this thread. And the suggestions that I should avoid the internet/ life or Mumsnet if I can’t cope with a laughing emoji.

i think that because the mocking is sent anonymously it feels worse and it was unexpected. it felt like being bullied.

It felt like that because that how some people used it. Too cowardly to do it so everyone could see. I know a woman that posted about her experience of poor mental health on here and had people use the laughing emoji to mock her posts. She no longer posts. She’s a nice woman who was going through a bad time who had posted on mumsnet for more than 10 years. I don’t think the laughing emoji should be brought back. No one needs to tell someone that they found their post funny that much and if they do, use words or an emoji in the text box. The thread filling up quicker is not a reason to not just do this, you can start a thread number 2, 3……..100 if you need to.

So you'd like to see the 'thanks', 'agree', 'love', 'support' emojis gone too, rather than have them so members can choose whether to have them personally toggled on or off?

I don't see the point in no-one being able to use them just because some people don't want them?

Surely this solution suits all?

As long as everyone knows they can toggle them on and off then there shouldn't be a problem - but not everyone will. Perhaps the default should be off, unless you toggle them on?

Another great idea 👍

It's not a bad idea - we'll be able to see which users think they're funny, I suppose!

But instead of threads full of 'I wish we had the laugh emoji back!!' we'll just have 'I wish you had laugh emojis enabled!' and the ensuing discussion about 'I'm on the app so don't have that' 'where do you do that? ' 'can I go back and enable it for my last 5 posts?'

@CandyCayne I haven’t said they should all go but I think if there is evidence that certain ones are or have been used to mock, then they should go and stay gone.

So you'd like to see the 'thanks', 'agree', 'love', 'support' emojis gone too, rather than have them so members can choose whether to have them personally toggled on or off?

That's an odd conclusion to draw - did you understand that all the examples given in this thread and the other ones were about laughing at people, not thanking them, agreeing with them or loving them?

This is the issue - people aren't really engaging with the reasons for it being removed, just assuming that the person doesn't like the idea of any reaction.

You said

I don’t think the laughing emoji should be brought back. No one needs to tell someone that they found their post funny that much and if they do, use words or an emoji in the text box. The thread filling up quicker is not a reason to not just do this, you can start a thread number 2, 3……..100 if you need to.

Therefore we don't need any emojis do we as it could all be done on the thread.

@AromanticSpices yes of course I understood.

But that would no longer be able to happen if posters can toggle them off.

Yeah but it just clogs up the feeds doesn’t it?

also we can’t see what other reactions someone’s replies have had. So why does it matter if we we have it or not.

maybe just not have it on OP posts - it shouldn’t have such a negative effect then by the trolls

But she isn't going to know when someone will mock. That's the point.

People were using it perversely to deride the poster's input - not because it was anything that might provoke genuine laughter.

Laughter is the best one to share with all. You don't need to know someone else thanked or supported someone. But, provided the laugh is a happy laugh - not a belittling one ,as in "you are so laughable but I'm not actually going to risk deriding you in the open because I'm a coward" - then I think laughter brightens the thread.

I get what you're saying but if being mocked really upsets a person that much (and I genuinely understand it does upset some more than others), then they can keep that one emoji permanently toggled off.

If the argument is no-one needs the laughing emoji, they'll be happy to do that as they'll feel they don't need it either.

This is just a suggestion to hopefully keep the majority happy on both sides of the 'argument'.

Does that mean we can't laugh openly because we will have thread police saying " just use your react function!!!" ? Sometimes people want to share more widely that they thought a post was funny. I think that's quite a normal way to converse. Laughter adds to a normal conversation as much as the words do.

I just don't get the need to squirrel the response away, It doesn't clog that much.

ETA in a normal conversation style, people don't tend to say "I love what you just said" or "thank you for saying that" (except those formal tv discussions where a host sits in as umpire). Those are tweaks for the online set-up.

But normal human conversation does share laughter as a response.

But again, they can only keep it toggled off if they know it's a feature and know how to do it. For example, MN have now hidden the report option, so unless you know where to find it then you wouldn't know it was possible to report someone for being a dick. You really need to know how to navigate MN these days.

Does that mean we can't laugh openly because we will have thread police saying " just use your react function!!!" ?

Well I didn't see that before when it was available and I don't see it now with regards to people saying 'thank you' or sending other emojis openly?

If someone wants to share more widely, they won't be prevented from doing so.

Again, this is just a (hopefully) workable suggestion to keep the majority happy.

I think the only people who want this back are sarcastic posters or troll hunters who want to point out trolls without getting banned for being obvious.

Leave it in the bin where it belongs.

Yes, which is why I think you're suggestion of the default being 'off' is a really good one.

I'm afraid I can see that as the only substantive objection to not having it too.

If you want to laugh, you can laugh. It's one click and if clogging is really an issue, perhaps they should just extend the thread lengths.

But then none of those posters know if someone thought their post was genuinely funny - which is the whole point of a laugh function in the first place.

That's a pretty awful thing to say really, considering all the people who would just genuinely like it back.

But again, there would be no reason to 'leave it in the bin' if those who want it can toggle it on and those who don't, can toggle it off.

Anyway, I feel like this is going round in circles.

Thankfully MNHQ have said they'll look into it, so we'll see if they come up with anything.

Nah I don't want it back. In fact, id take away the rest of them me.

I don't really care either way but i find it amusing that some posters are arguing to not have it back because some people would be affected if it's used sarcastically, yet the same people wouldn't want it toggled off because then how would they know if posters reacted genuinely?

I mean...this is just being difficult. You either want it or you don't. If you don't want it, then it doesn't matter if it's toggled off and some people react genuinely to your post since you wouldn't have seen those reactions anyway if the feature wasn't available like you wanted. I find that it’s a good compromise. Only if MNHQ reinstate it anyway.

I was against the other 'like' feature but the secret like feature was a good compromise. Having the laugh feature automatically off but being able to toggle it on if you want it seems like a good one too.

If it's really important to you to know if someone finds your post funny then you can toggle the feature on.

You might want to toggle it off if you're posting about something sensitive like mental health, abortion, relationship difficulties etc though. I can't imagine anyone would want their posts on those boards to be laughed at.

I think MNHQ need to concentrate on fixing the constant crashing and reloading of the site that happens for many of us and the IT experts there can’t seem to fix it but we all know it’s the adverts.